1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to communication systems; and, more particularly, it relates to assessment of operational parameters and management thereof within such communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Data communication systems have been under continual development for many years. In recent years, the development of piconet type communication systems has been under increasing development. A piconet may be viewed as a network that is established when two devices connect to support communication of data between themselves. Sometimes, piconets are referred to as PANs (Personal Area Networks). These piconets typically operate within a region having a radius of up to approximately 10 meters.
As is known, the Bluetooth® communication standard is the first such PAN communication standard that has been developed. In accordance with the Bluetooth® communication standard, the communication between the various devices in such a piconet is strictly performed using an M/S (Master/Slave) configuration. Each of the devices within such a Bluetooth® piconet is M/S capable. Typically one of the devices (sometimes referred to as piconet controller in this situation), or a first device within the Bluetooth® piconet, transmits a beacon signal (or an access invitation signal) while operating as the “master” device of the Bluetooth® piconet to the other “slave” devices of the Bluetooth® piconet. In other words, the “master” device of the Bluetooth® piconet polls the other “slave” devices to get them to respond.
However, other piconets may be implemented such that the devices do not operate according to such an M/S (Master/Slave) type relationship. In such instances, various piconet operable devices operate may be referred to as PNCs (piconet coordinators) and DEVs (user piconet devices that are not PNCs). The PNCs operate to coordinate the communication between themselves and the DEVs within the piconet. Sometimes, such a PNC may be implemented to operate as a master with respect to the 1 or more DEVs that operate as slaves, but this need not be the case in all instances—the strict M/S relationship is typically the case only in a Bluetooth® piconet.
In even some other instances, two or more piconets operate cooperatively such that at least two piconets operate such that they share at least one common device in a scatternet implementation. For example, in a scatternet, a single DEV may interact with two or more PNCs. This implementation will allow various devices within different piconets that are located relatively far from one another to communicate through the PNCs of the scatternet. However, within a scatternet implementation, a problem may arise such that each of the individual piconets must be able to operate in relative close proximity with other piconets without interfering with one another. This inherently requires a great deal of synchronization between the piconets, which may be very difficult to achieve in some instances. It is also noted that independently operating piconets, not implemented within a scatternet implementation, may also suffer from deleterious effects of interference with other piconets located within relative close proximity.
Some PAN communication standards and recommended practices have been developed (and some are still being developed) by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers) 802.15 working group. These standards and recommended practices may generally be referred to as being provided under the umbrella of the IEEE 802.15 working group. Perhaps the most common standard is the IEEE 802.15.1 standard which adopts the core of Bluetooth® and which generally can support operational rates up to approximately 1 Mbps (Mega-bits per second).
The IEEE 802.15.2 recommended practice specification has been developed in an effort to support the co-existence of the IEEE 802.15.1 Bluetooth® core with virtually any other wireless communication system within the approximate 2.4 GHz (Giga-Hertz) frequency range. As some examples, the IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11g WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) standards both operate within the approximate 2.4 GHz frequency range. This IEEE 802.15.2 recommended practice specification has been developed to ensure that such a WLAN and a piconet may operate simultaneously within relatively close proximity of one another without significant interference with one another.
In addition, the IEEE 802.15.3 high data rate PAN standard has been developed in an effort to support operational rate up to approximately 55 Mbps. In this IEEE 802.15.3 standard, the PNCs and DEVs do not operate according to an M/S relationship as they do according to Bluetooth®. In contradistinction, a PNC operates generally as an AP (Access Point) and manages the various DEVs such that they are guaranteed to perform their respective communication according to their appropriate time slots thereby ensuring proper performance and operation within the piconet. An extension of the IEEE 802.15.3 high data rate PAN standard is the IEEE 802.15.3 WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) High Rate Alternative PHY Task Group 3a (TG3a). This is sometimes referred to the IEEE 802.15.3a extended high data rate PAN standard, and it can support operational rates up to 480 Mbps
Yet another standard developed by the IEEE 802.15 working group is the IEEE 802.15.4 low data rate PAN standard that generally supports data rates within the range of approximately 10 kbps (kilo-bits per second) and 250 kbps.
Between various devices within a piconet, a PHY (physical layer) link communicatively couples the PHY of a first device to a PHY of a second device. Various operational parameters govern the manner in which communication is performed across the PHY link. Examples of the operational parameters may include the modulation employed to map symbols to be transmitted across the PHY link (e.g., BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Key), QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Key), 16 QAM (16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), etc.), the code rate of an encoded signal that is transmitted across the PHY link, the data rate of a signal that is transmitted across the PHY link, a QoS (Quality of Service) of the PHY link, or some other operational parameter of the PHY link. Within prior art communication systems, there is typically not a great deal (if any at all) of signaling and/or communication between the PHY and higher protocol layers of information corresponding to these operational parameters by which the PHY link is supported between devices.
As such, the PHY itself is typically solely responsible for the manner in which communication is supported across its respective PHY link. This prior art implementation presents a relatively rigid manner in which to operate a piconet, in that, the PHY itself does not possess sufficient processing capability or resources to determine whether or not the operational parameters that support communication across a PHY link is a most efficient implementation or whether or not a change in the operational parameters that support communication across a PHY link would provide any improvement in performance of communication across the PHY link. For at least these deficiencies existent within the art, there is a need to provide a solution for more efficient manner to manage and control the operational parameters that govern communication across a PHY link.